Request Closed: September 21, 2023 9:00 am — October 12, 2023 11:59 pm
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public comment on the justifications for adopting the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) and STAC API open specifications as OGC Community Standards. Comments are due by October 12, 2023.
STAC is an open specification designed to improve the discovery, accessibility, and interoperability of geospatial data. It consists of two efforts: a static implementation with no moving parts (the Catalog itself), and a dynamic implementation that responds to user queries. STAC API is the dynamic endpoint, and it conforms to OGC API – Features described using OpenAPI specifications.
The STAC specification evolved from different organizations’ collaborative efforts to overcome the challenges associated with different tools, APIs, and data formats in geospatial technology. As such, STAC provides a common, interoperable metadata framework to expose geospatial assets, such as satellite imagery and other spatiotemporal data.
The primary use-case for STAC is to simplify the process of finding and using geospatial assets from different providers. It is beneficial for data providers, developers, and data users: providers can more easily expose their data to the world; developers have a standardized way to interact with geospatial data; and users can more easily find and ingest the data they need.
STAC is backed by various tools and resources that facilitate its use. These include a browser for STAC catalogs and a STAC compliant web API for searching and serving metadata for geospatial data.
STAC implements and extends OGC API – Features and describes many datasets using the standard. STAC and OGC API – Features evolved together and are continually aligned based on new user feedback and new implementations.
In addition to the OGC API – Features, the dynamic catalogs of STAC align well with OGC API – Records. Multiple development sprints have been completed with OGC members to ensure alignment between STAC and OGC.
The justification documents for the adoption of SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) and STAC API as OGC Community Standards (STAC [23-051] [.HTML] and STAC API [23-052] [.HTML]) are available for review and comment on the OGC Portal. Comments are due by October 12, 2023, and should be submitted via the method below.
To Comment:
Comments can be submitted to a dedicated email reflector for a period ending on the “Close request date” listed above. Comments received will be consolidated and reviewed by OGC members for incorporation into the document. Please submit your comments via this email address, using this Comments Template for the message body.
Subscribe to Comments:
You may wish to subscribe to the distribution list to receive comments as they are submitted. Subscribing to the list will also allow you to view comments already received, which can be found in the List Archives.